MOSCOW, August 4 (RIA Novosti) - Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen would have submitted evidence of Ukrainian independence supporters’ fault for the Malaysian plane crash if he had any, Alexei Pushkov, the head of the committee for international relations in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house parliament, said Monday.
“If Rasmussen had any convincing evidence of independence supporters’ fault for the downing of the Boeing, he would have submitted it. But he has nothing apart from the rhetoric,” Pushkov wrote on his Twitter page.
The statement came in response to Rasmussen’s recent interview with the French Midi Libre newspaper, where Secretary General claimed that he had evidence of independence supporters being responsible for the crash. A representative of NATO did not specify to RIA Novosti what kind of evidence Rasmussen was referring to, saying that he cannot “comment on intelligence data”. Another source in NATO told RIA Novosti earlier that the alliance was not participating in the investigation into the causes of the tragedy.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17. All 298 people on board, including 85 children, died in the crash. Kiev authorities and independence supporters have been trading blame for the downing of the plane, with independence supporters insisting they lacked the technology to shoot down a target flying at such a height.
